Power outage at end of Fort Pierce Central graduation ceremony had some concerned about their safety

This article has been modified from its original version. Summer Platt is venue coordinator for the St. Lucie County Fairgrounds. Adams Arena is in Fort Pierce.

FORT PIERCE — More than 2,600 people — 520 of them attending graduating ceremonies at Adams Arena — were in the dark May 30 after a power station was blown offline.

The outage lasted a half-hour from 8:58 p.m. to 9:28 p.m., according to Bill Orlove, Florida Power & Light Co. spokesman, and was caused by a raccoon that got into a substation.

This is the second year in a row the lights have gone out at the arena during graduation ceremonies, Orlove confirmed. Last year's outage was caused by a lightning strike.

It was a frightening and potentially dangerous situation, said Michael Cotter of Port St. Lucie, who was attending his granddaughter's graduation from Fort Pierce Central High School.

"The whole family was there, and just as the ceremony ended and people were starting to leave the graduates the lights went out," Cotter said. "I couldn't see in the dark, so my son helped me get to the car."

Cotter claims no emergency lights or backup generator rescued the 520 graduates and their families, but Summer Platt, venue coordinator for the St. Lucie County Fairgrounds, said emergency lights in the hallways came on immediately, and generators restored the lights as soon as possible.

"It takes seven to nine minutes for the lights to reset, and that is true for any arena that has high pressure sodium lights," Platt said, adding, "There are emergency lights that stay on even when the power goes out."

Amid rumors of preset timers clicking off and blackouts being a perennial problem at the arena, both FPL and Platt said it was a coincidence they happened during graduation ceremonies.

Platt also said the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office provided emergency lighting along walkways as people left the campus.

"So, it wasn't like everyone was left in the dark," she said.

Still, Cotter said being led through the dark was not a good experience.

"They had a lot of handicapped people there, too; some even in wheelchairs," he said. "I just thought it was a very dangerous thing. It was a mess."